


Personal Demons

by Sk3tch



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Because you know me!, Demons, Halloween Challenge, M/M, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, but also fluff, scary level 1: spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 19:16:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8221907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sk3tch/pseuds/Sk3tch
Summary: Everybody's got their demons, some are just more literal than others...Or, the short story of how Cecil's demons get out. Written for Jeongsindan (정신단, JSD) or "spirit scout's" panfandom multimedia Halloween Trick or Treat writing challenge. :D





	

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [jeongsindan2016](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/jeongsindan2016) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Imagine X winking. He does not open his eye again. "My demons are trying to escape," he whispers. 
> 
> Taken from [here](https://twitter.com/btscuteimagines/status/674621678559887360)

 

                Cecil sat on the bench silently. This in itself was strange to Carlos, who was used to the constant barrage of emotions Cecil usually displayed. He moved closer and saw Cecil had one eye closed with a hand gently pressed over the socket.

                “Cecil?” He asked, not quite sure what was happening. They had been talking about whether the faceless old woman who secretly lived in their home was trying to hint at getting new wallpaper when a look of panic had flashed over Cecil’s beautiful violet eyes and he had excused himself outside hastily. But that had been twenty minutes ago and he was still sitting outside in the cold when Carlos decided he wasn’t going to wait inside any longer. Cecil mumbled something under his breath in answer, but Carlos couldn’t make it out.

                Kneeling down, he placed a hand on Cecil’s knee, causing the radio host to swing his open eye to look at Carlos with a fearful intensity that almost made Carlos retract his touch. Almost. Squeezing lightly, he asked Cecil to repeat himself.

                “My demons are trying to escape,” he whispered a little louder, his gaze returning to the space in front of him, “and I don’t want them to. Not right now, not with you.”

                While his voice was usually smooth in velvety tones, or comical the way he talked about Khoshekh or other cat related topics, his voice now sounded broken, and unsure. Like a shell of himself.

                Gulping, Carlos looked down to gather himself before he tried to help Cecil. He let out his breath in a rush and looked back to see Cecil still staring ahead.

                “Cecil. Do you trust me?” Instantly, a purple iris met his brown eyes and he knew the answer even before Cecil spoke it.

                “Of course my perfectly imperfect Carlos, completely.” He nodded and seemed taken aback.

                “Then you should know I trust you just as much, if not more.” Cecil sighed and leaned back on the bench, using his other hand to support his elbow. Frowning, Carlos got up from his knee and took the open seat next to his boyfriend.

                Reaching over, he pried Cecil’s hand from his eye while the other continued to keep it screwed shut, despite the extra barrier being taken away.

                “Cecil,” he said in a tone he knew the other couldn’t ignore, “please open your eye.” Cecil bit his lip, but remained in his perpetual wink.

                They of course had talked about what Cecil was.  Or wasn’t, to be more specific. Cecil was not human, and Carlos was startlingly okay with that. Of all the things he had encountered in Night Vale: clocks that were not clocks, houses that should be there but weren’t, and spending money on imaginary cornflakes…. Cecil was the most normal thing Carlos had found since arriving. Even if at times his smile was too wide, or his ‘funny stories’ scared Carlos a little too much for acceptable levels of light humor, he found himself inexplicably drawn to the other man regardless.

                Besides, he had everything Carlos could ask for: compassion, kindness, and enough hope for humanity for the both of them. It made up for the occasionally manifested extra appendage usually in the form of a tentacle, that tripped him in the pre-coffee mornings or scared him in the middle of the night right as he was falling asleep.

                So he knew there was more to Cecil than met the eye. More bodily, and more… unknowable, and dark Carlos supposed. That was the closest he could come to describe it. So if Cecil said demons were trying to escape from him, Carlos took it at face value. Cecil was too straight forward to try and prank him anyway.

                “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Carlos. I just don’t trust me. Or them rather, they are… a persistent bunch..” Carlos shook his head and knew Cecil was watching his every move from the corner of his open eye. Probably from his third eye as well, even though it was currently in its tattoo state.

                “Cecil…Trust me, when I say I trust you. I know you love me, and demons beside, I know YOU would never let THEM hurt me.” He sighed and Carlos knew it was from defeat. Cecil turned toward him with a still pleading look in his eye before he nodded.

                “I love you,” he said kissing their interlaced hands before dropping them and standing from the bench. “Please just remember that.”

                “I love you too Cecil, no matter what.” Carlos wanted to get up and reclaim his hand, but Cecil was holding out an arm to keep him seated. Since they had come this far, Carlos reminded himself he just needed to be patient. Scientists are nothing if not patient, he thought wryly.

                Watching Cecil’s back, Carlos knew the moment he opened his eye minutes later. Instead of the straight rigid back that had been before him, he saw Cecil’s shoulders slump a little, but he did not turn around. Carlos hoped it had been with relief, but as the moment drew on and he was still staring at Cecil’s back, he began to second guess his whole idea. Could he have overestimated Cecil’s control, or was he just angry at Carlos for not giving him enough space? The longer he stayed facing away from Carlos, the more nervous he was he pushed Cecil to do something he shouldn’t have. Which meant Carlos now had the stance Cecil just disposed of.

                He was about to call out to him, when Cecil turned around and Carlos felt himself relax instantly. There was absolutely nothing demonic about his boyfriend whatsoever. In fact, he was smiling one of Carlos’ favorite goofy smiles, the one that usually followed after he said ‘neat’. Carlos started to wonder if this whole demon thing had been one of Night Vale’s dramatic couple’s tests, but then the smile faded and Cecil’s face fell into a blank stare as a chill ran up Carlos’ spine. It wasn’t entirely because Cecil looked stricken, so much that he appeared frozen with fear and was staring right at him. Then, somehow, Carlos felt his head hit the cement and a warmth cascade over him before his vision started to swim.

                The last thing he would recall for certain was the light. It was brilliant and blinding, and of course, was purple. Well, there were several shades of purple and white, but they were all coming out of Cecil’s eye socket.  Sure the scientist in him was intrigued by the many hues shooting out of this boyfriend’s sight cavity, but the semi-rational part of him that now believed a lot more of the crazier and unrealistic things in Night Vale to be true had a brief pang of panic that Cecil might not have been able to exert as much control over his demons like Carlos had thought he could.

                But before the light became too blinding and Carlos apparently blacked out, he clearly heard his boyfriend using his most commanding and intimidating voice to shout ‘no’.

 

***

 

                When his consciousness came back to him, he became aware of first of electronic noises around him and that he was not home. The beeping told him he was not at Cecil’s apartment. The lack of baked pizza aroma told him he was not at his lab or old apartment. Then when the beeping started to echo not his heartbeat, but his own thoughts via morse code, he knew he was at Night Vale General. He sighed, opening his eyes to see a sleeping Cecil in an uncomfortable looking plastic chair obviously meant for a child.

                Sitting up slowly, he looked around the room after asking the machine to stop broadcasting his thoughts, which it politely did and instead went back to sounding his heartbeat, and frowned. It was a typical hospital room in Night Vale: a few chairs, a television, a curtain off to the side where the sheriff’s secret police liked to crouch behind, but nothing to tell him why he was there. Last time, with the miniature city incident under lane 5, the staff had all taken the opportunity to write on the large whiteboard in the room about either how brave he’d been or how stupid. But at least it said at the top why he was there: mini mob mauling. This time the board was eerily blank.

                But from what he did remember, he guessed it had to do with Cecil’s ‘demons’.  Carlos started to shake his head with a chuckle but stopped with a quick groan. Ah yes, he did vaguely recall his head hitting something….

                “… Carlos?” He looked over at Cecil with a lopsided smile before it dropped off his face. Cecil looked like he hadn’t slept in months and like he might burst into tears.

                “Oh thank the glow cloud! How do you feel?” He asked, somehow managing to pull himself into a tighter ball in the chair while leaning forward to look at Carlos.

                “Fine Cecil,” he said with a light wheeze, “a bit fuzzy on the details though. Fill me in?”

                “Well, what do you remember?” So Carlos retold what he could. Cecil nodded and kept switching his gaze between Carlos’ eyes and his hair. He thought it odd, but kept going until he got to the part about the bright lights and blacking out.

                “Yes, the doctors told me that was most likely the concussion you received from your head hitting the sidewalk.”

                “How did that happen? I mean, I was on the bench…” Cecil bit his lip and Carlos rolled his eyes.

                “Let me guess, your demons?” Cecil sighed and ran a hand over his face, forming it into a fist to hide his mouth.

                “I did try to hold them all, but some were quite strong. They’ve been dealt with though, I assure you.” His eyes flashed a dark purple for a second before returning to normal.

                “Well… I mean aside from the concussion, which is minor, I feel pretty fine Cecil. I think you were successful.” He smiled again, but this time Cecil frowned and seemed even more angry at himself.

                “Unless I’m missing something?” Grasping his head in his hands, Cecil let out a whine before meeting his eyes.

                “Oh Carlos! I’m not sure I can ever forgive myself, so I surely don’t expect you to.” He dug around through his messenger bag leaning against the chair and pulled out a mirror.

                “I’m just,” he said gripping it tighter before handing it over to Carlos, “so very sorry.”

                Fearing the absolute worst, like half his head to be missing, Carlos took a breath before looking at his reflection. But when his brown eyes met his own and deemed his face to look exactly the same as he remembered it, although he was due for a shave, he was confused. Until he tilted the mirror back, and realized why Cecil was so distraught. Fighting the urge to laugh loudly and roll his eyes, he let out a small chuckle instead and set the mirror on the side table.

                “Cecil, I can assure you that if this is the worst that comes from your demons, I can forgive you. I promise I am not mad.”

                “But Carlos,” he practically moaned, “your beautiful hair!!” This time he couldn’t help the full out laugh while Cecil sighed.

                Now that he knew most of his hair had been singed shorter than even the haircut from Telly the barber, he could feel the coolness of the air in the room. But even that did nothing to his giddy mood. From everything that could have happened; death, dismemberment, or something worse, losing his hair was at the bottom of his list of worries. Cecil would just have to get over it.

                Because after all, he was still alive, Cecil was alive, and they had each other. His hair would grow back, as he would remind Cecil many more times before he was released with instructions to get plenty of rest and Big Rico’s, and a few more when they finally got back to their apartment. Everything was going be fine, regardless of Cecil’s demons.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's been way too long since I've written these two dorks... or listened to the podcast... Regretfully I'm only on like.. episode 51 or 52? Ugh, if only I had the time to just lay around and listen to music/podcasts all day! Anywho... I hope you like this short little fluff tale. I tried to go scary, but the glow cloud knows I could never hurt these two, so... Meh.. Enjoy! :D


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